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Luna

Naru was just a character written to give Usagi someone to interact with before all the Guardians joined the cast. The anime remembered her for a bit, but she was largely reduced to a minor role because the story just didn't need her anymore. I highly doubt she was ever written to be anything more.

Naru’s sole function was to just be Usagi’s friend before the Senshi started appearing and to give Usagi someone to save that she has a personal stake in the first act. Her role is severely diminished after Act 1. The anime treated her a lot better keeping her around a bit longer. It helped that there was 7 episodes with just Usagi as a Senshi and making Usagi and Rei at odds with each other gave Usagi more reason to hang out with Naru even with Rei and Ami being her other friends but once Mako shows up you could slowly see the anime staff phase Naru out that after Minako shows up Naru only appears in about 3 episodes in the rest of the Dark Kingdom series.

Frankly, the idea Miss Takeuchi considered Naru to be the Moon Princess or Sailor Saturn is laughable

Luna Nova

Naru in the anime and manga was a representative figure of Usagi's life before her becoming Sailor Moon. As the series went on, the more Usagi befriended the Sailor Guardians and was more faithful to the mission of keeping Earth safe, the further away she drifted from Naru.

In the anime she was a constant companion to Usagi and a constant target to the Dark Kingdom to lure Sailor Moon out in the first season. In Sailor Moon R, she was present for about 5 appearances. In Sailor Moon S, she is seen in two appearances. In Sailor Moon SuperS, she only appears once. By Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, she is gone.

Her appearance in the manga are partially the mirror for her anime appearance as the manga came first on monthly basis and the anime on weekly basis. But it was actually a relative of Naru that Naoko tacked on in a story during the Stars arc.

Luna Crescens

Naru in the anime and manga was a representative figure of Usagi's life before her becoming Sailor Moon. As the series went on, the more Usagi befriended the Sailor Guardians and was more faithful to the mission of keeping Earth safe, the further away she drifted from Naru.

In the anime she was a constant companion to Usagi and a constant target to the Dark Kingdom to lure Sailor Moon out in the first season. In Sailor Moon R, she was present for about 5 appearances. In Sailor Moon S, she is seen in two appearances. In Sailor Moon SuperS, she only appears once. By Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, she is gone.

Her appearance in the manga are partially the mirror for her anime appearance as the manga came first on monthly basis and the anime on weekly basis. But it was actually a relative of Naru that Naoko tacked on in a story during the Stars arc.

Naru also appeared in the side story with her sister Naruru. Naru even scolds Naruru in the end. It would be interesting if that side story was adapted to the 90s anime as in that canon Naru was an only child. Maybe Naruru could have been Naru's cousin or maybe Naru's father's child with another woman and Naru's half sister.

Aurorae Lunares

Naru makes a small, non-speaking appearance in the manga proper as well during that arc. In Stars 3, we see Usagi, Naru, Haruka, and Michiru having lunch together. I wish they'd put that scene in the 90s anime (there's absolutely no chance it'll be in Crystal should it ever get around to the Stars arc) since that's such an unusual group of people and I'd love to see their dynamic. Oh well.

Yes, the supporting characters more or less vanish in the manga as they do in the 90s anime, but I still feel like Naoko handled them better overall. It only feels like they're more prominent in the anime because they were in so many filler episodes early on. Even if Naoko ultimately did nothing with the plot point, she did make it so that Motoki and Asanuma (and likely Naru and maybe even Umino too) knew the girls' and Mamoru's secret identities. The 90s anime should have developed that into storylines, but instead Toei chose to play it safe and boring with formulaic filler involving nobodies.

Luna Crescens

Naru makes a small, non-speaking appearance in the manga proper as well during that arc. In Stars 3, we see Usagi, Naru, Haruka, and Michiru having lunch together. I wish they'd put that scene in the 90s anime (there's absolutely no chance it'll be in Crystal should it ever get around to the Stars arc) since that's such an unusual group of people and I'd love to see their dynamic. Oh well.

Yes, the supporting characters more or less vanish in the manga as they do in the 90s anime, but I still feel like Naoko handled them better overall. It only feels like they're more prominent in the anime because they were in so many filler episodes early on. Even if Naoko ultimately did nothing with the plot point, she did make it so that Motoki and Asanuma (and likely Naru and maybe even Umino too) knew the girls' and Mamoru's secret identities. The 90s anime should have developed that into storylines, but instead Toei chose to play it safe and boring with formulaic filler involving nobodies.

Luna Nova

Also, it had been mentioned quite some time ago that in planning, Naru Osaka was to become Sailor Earth, but as the story developed, this idea was dropped. This also is connected to the early preliminary Guardians, one of which, Sailor Gaia, who represented Earth, who was the civilian Mamoru Chino, who would be split into Makoto Kino (Sailor Jupiter, minus the smoking habit) and Mamoru Chiba (Tuxedo Mask and Earth's representing warrior.)

All great stories don't come out of the gate with all first draft elements intact. Any great story teller doesn't tell their audience an idea that can't support itself.

Aurorae Lunares

There was never going to be a "Sailor Earth."
Naru was never going to be a Sailor Soldier.
Mamoru Chino (Makoto's prototype) wasn't going to be "Sailor Gaia." She was going to be one of the main characters and associated with the primordial god(dess) Gaia, but no "Sailor ____" name was assigned.

Minako's friend Hikaru was included in that early concept draft, and she was associated with Chaos... Maybe you're just confusing the characters (with fan theories)?

Luna Crescens

There was never going to be a "Sailor Earth."
Naru was never going to be a Sailor Soldier.
Mamoru Chino (Makoto's prototype) wasn't going to be "Sailor Gaia." She was going to be one of the main characters and associated with the primordial god(dess) Gaia, but no "Sailor ____" name was assigned.

Minako's friend Hikaru was included in that early concept draft, and she was associated with Chaos... Maybe you're just confusing the characters (with fan theories)?

In fact when it comes to prototype Makoto aka Mamoru Chino the planet she was linked to was not the Earth. The original design besides the Primordial Gods the girls were linked to it also included the named of the planetary deities with their Greek and Roman names. Only two of them were linked to a planetary Deity namely Minako and Mamoru aka proto Mako. Minako was liked to Aphrodite/Venus who is described as the Goddess of Love and Mamoru or proto Mako was linked to Chronos/Saturn called there the God of Time. So really proto Mako might have been a prototype Sailor Saturn.

Luna Nova

Anime ended her character arc very badly, in S when she last appeared, she hinted she knew that Usagi is hiding something, and that she is probably one of Scouts and that she can listen to her if she have any problems, and then this conversation continued...never

It was similar in manga, Naru felt Usagi recently became different person and now lives in world she is not allowed to be in, at least she stayed around, even in Stars portion of story (Especially in that short story with Chibi-Usa and Hotaru)

Luna Nova

Anime ended her character arc very badly, in S when she last appeared, she hinted she knew that Usagi is hiding something, and that she is probably one of Scouts and that she can listen to her if she have any problems, and then this conversation continued...never

Actually, if memory serves me correctly, that scene happened in R... and Naru's last appearance was actually in SuperS.

I kind of missed Naru and the supporting characters in Stars! Literally the only side character who pops up in Stars is Ikuko. I guess maybe the writers felt they had served their purpose, but I mean, it would be nice to find out what happened to them or what they were up to in the show's last season. I actually really like Naru in the first season, her relationship with Nephrite was touching and always made me cry. But afterward it's like they don't know what to do with her anymore.

Luna Crescens

Naru and pretty much every other non-magical character serve as backgrounds to build Usagi's world. Its no wonder that they were less present in seasons/arcs with bigger cast (such as second half of R, Infinity/S and Stars and had more screentime in first arc/season, Dream/SuperS etc. Keep in mind that both anime and manga were guilty of underdeveloping even the main cast/villains (just few examples anime: Pluto, last few Witches, manga: most villains, Starlights) so its no wonder they didnt have much heart for small characters

Aurorae Lunares

I'd never thought about this before, but I saw a comment from a Japanese fan positing whether or not there's a connection between Neptune and Umino since his name means "sea field" (similar to how Usagi's last name means "moon field" and Ami's means "water field"). Not that I really subscribe to this theory, but if we're going with the idea that Naru was at some point going to be Sailor Saturn due to her birthday, perhaps Umino would have turned out to be Sailor Neptune (or Tuxedo Neptune or Neptune Mask or whatever).

Again, I definitely don't think that was the case, but just an interesting idea I thought I'd share. Now, someone please go make some Sailor Umino Neptune fan art

ETA: Here's the comment I saw:

月野がセーラームーン​

水野がセーラーマーキュリー​

って事は海野が海王星の守護を受けたセーラーネプチューン（仮）になるのか​

Tsukino is Sailor Moon​

Mizuno is Sailor Mercury​

Could it be that Umino is under the protection of Neptune as a (temporary/hypothetical) Sailor Neptune?​